An Autumn For Crippled Children unleash their debut album Lost this year, and it’s not going to be an easy album to swallow at first. The Depressive Black and Doom Metal act really hammer away at their listeners on this release with an album that does well to be called a depressive and emotional release. However, even though the atmosphere does settle well, the main issues here are thanks simply to rather low production qualities, as well as the band’s rather repetative music.

Lost is one of those releases that you just don’t quite know what to think of it no matter how many times you listen to it. Some of the material on this release shows a band with sound mind and an ability to create some rather dark and melancholic material, such as the track “In Moonlight Blood Is Black”, a slow paced track that does it’s job very well at setting a very unsettling desolate atmosphere with simple guitars and drums. However, even the most dominant of tracks on the release tend to start getting a little drab and repetative, but that could mostly be blamed by the rather poor recording quality and the distortions used that are somewhat hard to decipher.

If you really sit down and try to listen to the album, you’ll hear things you probably wouldn’t normally hear if you just put this in as a casual listen. First of all, the drumming on Lost is phenomenal at times, working very well with the mood of the music, and when necessary can become much heavier and faster up to and including a practically blast beat pace. Factor this in with the simple yet haunting guitars and keyboards, and you have a very well composed emotional album. However, in some instances, such as in “A Dire Faith”, the guitar’s distortion, or even the keyboards, have the ability to practically dwarf the drums all together, not to mention that the vocals are recorded so low that it is very hard to even hear them. The distortion on the guitars works wonders for the release as well, but trying to decipher everything that comes your way on this release will only lead to giving you a headache, making it a little more complicated to really enjoy the release.

While the low production quality of the release does wind up working in the favor of the ambience, a little clarity wouldn’t have killed it. The perfect example of this would be the track “An Autumn for Crippled Children”, which blends both distorted electric guitars, with acoustic guitars, moving at a much slower pace that focuses more on keyboards then anything. This track is a prime example of how the album should really sound, as well as with the track “I Beg Thee Not to Spare me”, which just stands out more then the rest on here since it is a heavier versionf of “An Autumn for Crippled Children” structurally, but, unlike “To Set Sails to the Ends of the Earth” and “Tragedy Bleeds All Over the Lost”, to name a few, doesn’t repeat the same chords over and over for a good majority, if not all, of the song. Sadly, it’s only at this point that the album does start to pick up, closing with “Never Shall Be Again” which has one of the most powerful performances on the release.

While Lost doesn’t start out on the most solid of ground, the start of the CD really isn’t an absolute train wreck. It’s still enjoyable to an extent, it’s just that after a while, some of the earlier songs will sound very repetative before the next track even begins, and are best handled in small doses. A good majority of the time, the blame can be focused on the production quality, as well as the distortion level of the guitars utilized here. There’s no denying this release could have been much better, but it does still show the potential that An Autumn For Crippled Children has.

01. To Set Sails to the Ends of the Earth – 5:4202. Tragedy Bleeds All Over the Lost – 4:5603. A Dire Faith – 8:1004. In Moonlight Blood Is Black – 4:0505. Ghost Light – 4:3406. An Autumn for Crippled Children – 6:2007. I Beg Thee Not to Spare me – 4:5708. Gaping Void of Silence – 4:5209. Never Shall Be Again – 6:48